Food Stamps Backlog Lower; New One Rises
- Details
- Category: News
- Created on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 15:01
- Hits: 921
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
Officials from Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance said its staff worked through the backlog of applications for food aid that stressed Alaska families for more than a year. But that success came at the cost of what officials are calling a “new” backlog.
Division Director Deb Etheridge took over leadership in the midst of the backlog and said getting through the old backlog is a success.
“We’ve got to celebrate those wins and the staff feel really good about it,” Etheridge said. The division got through the backlog two months faster than officials projected.
The division fell behind on newer applications and while staff worked through backlogged cases. Etheridge said this time there are 6,000 Alaskans waiting for food aid.
She said the division prioritized getting benefits to the Alaskans who had been waiting the longest. “Our federal partners made it clear that we needed to get through the old backlog — don’t worry about staying current as much as getting some of those old ones off. So that’s what our focus was,” she said.
Since July, the division has been processing less than 20% of new food stamp applications on time. The average decision time for SNAP benefits was more than 80 days — more than four times the division’s goal and more than double the federal limit.
“There’s no perfect plan,” Etheridge said. “But we got thousands of cases worked.”
She said the oldest applications in the new backlog are from April and May, but most of them are from June. And she said they should be easier to get through for two main reasons: the staff is now practiced at moving through a backlog and, compared to the previous backlog, applications from two to four months ago are relatively fresh and faster to process.
The slow processing time for new applications is the cost of a much faster turnaround for renewals. Almost 40% of those applications were processed on time in July, a marked improvement from last December through this April, when the number fell below 10%.
––https://alaskabeacon.com/claire-stremple
Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
Login Form
20 YEARS AGO
September 2004
Photo caption: A replica of the sign reading “Annahootz Head Chief of the Sitka Tribe” in this 1904 photo of the Kaagwaantaan Wolf House is among items to be rededicated Oct. 23-24 at the 100-year anniversary celebration of the Last Potlatch of 1904. The sign was part of the Wolf House artifact collection loaned to Sitka National Historical Park in 1963.
50 YEARS AGO
September 1974
A seminar course, Topics of Aquaculture will be offered by Sheldon Jackson College. ... Dennis Lund, an SJC aquaculture program instructor, will coordinate the seminar..